[Tman1]

$1:

The family of a murdered Regina woman is suing the Regina police for taking too long to respond to a 911 call.

Derek Kinna says he wonders what would have happened if there had been a quicker response on the day two years ago when his mother, Janice Louise Kinna, was stabbed to death by her boyfriend.

Kenneth Eldon Ireland was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 10 years after pleading guilty to second-degree murder.

On Friday, the Kinna family launched a lawsuit against the police for taking more than half an hour to respond to an emergency call made by a neighbour who heard Kinna screaming on April 7, 2004. Records show police showed up 31 minutes after the call was logged. They found Kinna dead of multiple stab wounds.

"What if they got there sooner?" Derek Kinna said. "What if they walked in there during the middle of the act and possibly had a chance to stop the bleeding?"

At the time of her death, Kinna had a restraining order against Ireland that required him to stay away from her. He had previously been charged with assaulting her.

The family is also suing SaskTel, where both Kinna and Ireland were employed, saying the Crown corporation failed to protect Kinna at work.

Kinna, 47, left work in the company of her killer on the day she died, but her son doesn't think she went willingly.

"He went past security after knowing he shouldn't be having any contact with her," said Derek Kinna. "[At] that point in their relationship, I can't see my mom leaving with him unless some kind of ultimatum was put on her."

No one from the Regina Police Service or SaskTel was immediately available for comment about the lawsuit.

However, shortly after Kinna's death, deputy chief Clive Weighill said officers were facing a backlog of high-priority calls that afternoon.

When the call about Kinna screaming came in, officers were dealing with a break and enter in progess, an escapee from a psychiatric ward, a complaint about a newborn baby who had been left alone in a car, an assault in progress and a person who had been hit by a car.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/cbc/s/10042006 ... ponse.html

Kinda similar no?

[Tman1]

In any case, 911 needs some revamping of their hiring standards. I realize jokes and prank calls are a dime a dozen with 911 but regardless, they need to take everything seriously which may or may not save lives. Especially in Detroit, the second most crime infested place in the US, 911 needs to be taken seriously.

[Ruxpercnd]

I think 911 operators need to be given a little slack.

They do get a lot of crank calls. Even pet cats manage to dial 911. I have had to call 911 on a couple of occassions, and it is frustrating to try to get some action.

When you think about it, there is a lot going on behind the scenes. They have to try to mobilize scarce resources - not enough police, etc.. All kinds of problems. They get all kinds of kids playing on the phone and tons of domestic violence calls.

The exceptions make the news. The answer to these exceptions is not really with 911 operators, the answer is to hire more responders. These operators are trying to do a triage, trying to get help to those who really need it. It would be easy to send a cop out to each call, if there were enough officers. I tried to get our fire dept. to attend to a raging brush fire in my neighborhood, but they couldn't because there were too many fires - it happens.

If I have a heart attack, I don't expect anyone to save me. If they did, that would just be a bonus.

[DerbyX]

Ruxpercnd Ruxpercnd:

I think 911 operators need to be given a little slack.

They do get a lot of crank calls. Even pet cats manage to dial 911. I have had to call 911 on a couple of occassions, and it is frustrating to try to get some action.

When you think about it, there is a lot going on behind the scenes. They have to try to mobilize scarce resources - not enough police, etc.. All kinds of problems. They get all kinds of kids playing on the phone and tons of domestic violence calls.

The exceptions make the news. The answer to these exceptions is not really with 911 operators, the answer is to hire more responders. These operators are trying to do a triage, trying to get help to those who really need it. It would be easy to send a cop out to each call, if there were enough officers. I tried to get our fire dept. to attend to a raging brush fire in my neighborhood, but they couldn't because there were too many fires - it happens.

If I have a heart attack, I don't expect anyone to save me. If they did, that would just be a bonus.

True 911 operators do deal with alot on their job, chief among them are the idiots who call for something like finding out sporting event times or some such nonsense.

911 call abuse

Somethings they have to take seriously though even if they suspect its a prank just in case something like this happens. I'm sure that if the operators provide evidence like "on that night just prior we had received 14 prank calls in the span of 40 minutes" the people will take that into consideration.

[Motorcycleboy]

Most Ontario police agencies now have a mandatory response policy with 911 calls. Your number and address automatically appears on the operator's screen when you dial. Once that happens, a call for officers to attend the residence is automatically generated to make sure everything is ok. At that point, it doesn't matter what the person on the other end of the phone says. A cruiser is still coming to your house.

I'm sure that policy is pretty much uniform in Canada these days.

[themasta]

That's a good idea. A few prank calls with the 50 coming to your door and you'll cut that shit out right quick.